CLICK HEREfor the CAL Access Scheme for disused mines. CLICK HERE for the main Cambrian Caving Council website.

Welcome

What is Cambrian Caving Council calling for?

Agencies like Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and government departments like Defra claim that caving isn’t an open-air recreation, and that caving isn’t done in the outdoors, and that mountains, hills, moorland, heath, commons etc don’t include the caves that are found in them.These organisations thus enable themselves to claim that the ‘right to roam’ - which hill walkers and climbers enjoy under various Acts of Parliament and most especially under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW) - does not apply to cavers. NRW says that cavers have a legal right to walk up to a cave entrance that is located on CRoW Access Land, as ramblers would do, but not to step inside the cave entrance nor to explore the cave passages.Primarily, we are calling for equality and consistency of recreational opportunities for cavers. We are calling for statutory recognition that caves are an integral part of the outdoors, and that caving is just as much part of outdoors recreation as hill walking and rock climbing are.We are calling for an end to the current pretence by NRW and Defra that existing land access laws do not apply to going caving in Wales and England by means of interpreting the vocabulary that is used by the relevant Acts of Parliament in other than the normal and accepted way. The simplest way to obtain clarity will be via a new statutory code of conduct, similar to the system in Scotland, which is one of the proposals on which the Welsh Government is now consulting.This website is currently under development and more information will be added shortly. Please come back here again. Meanwhile, the further information is in the download links below.

Document downloads

The British Caving Association’s excellent response letter is here - you can use this as a model.Another template letter for making personal responses to the Welsh Government is hereThis document also contains the postal or email address that your letter should be sent to.Read the Welsh Government’s proposals for ‘Natural Resources’ management hereThis booklet is almost 100 pages long and it covers a lot more topics than just recreationRead the Cambrian Caving Council’s full reponse to the Welsh Government hereThis is 20 pages and focuses on existing and future access rights to go caving in WalesRead a short summary of CCC’s full response hereThis is 3 pages long and is a ‘quick’ overview intended to inform cavers

Welsh Government’s

Access Consultation

In June 2017 the Welsh Government (WG) issued a paper to consult organisations and the general public on better countryside access for non-motorised leisure activities, along with quite a number of other countryside law reforms.The closing date for sending a response is now 30th September 2017. You have only a few days left to act!We want more people to actively enjoy their leisure time in a world class Welsh outdoors that includes cave exploration. Every letter the government receives will be read and it will count.Take action this week by adding your voice. Send in your own brief response to the Welsh Government giving your own vision for better outdoors recreational access throughout Wales. Use the document downloads section opposite for letter templates.Visit the Outdoor Access Wales website to see what the other sports governing bodies in the open access alliance are proposing and to give your support to their ideas as well.